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Legal or not, it is dishonest and I refuse to deal with them. When I was a young buyer, our first experience with that, dealer had a great car at a great price so we went in. So they put us in another car to test drive and took ours to estimate a trade. Well their price was just way too much so they then tried to intimidate us into buy and refused to give us back the keys to our car. Had to get in a screaming match in the dealership and threaten to call the cops before they threw our keys back at us and accused us of lying to them.
On top of this they had the gall to call us the next day to accuse us of lying about wanting a new car (more intimidation). The real humorous part was we had left them and gone to another dealer where we bought the exact same car, same color and everything, for about $4000 less. I later learned that was a common tactic at that dealership to harass customers into buying. So unethical.
Weird. Never had anything like that. I've never been asked for my keys before. I'd probably just walk right out the door unless there was some reason for it like it was a dealership in San Francisco with absolutely no parking so they double parked everyone and needed the keys to shuffle them around. The only shady thing was the GM dealer where the sales manager lied to try and sell a car on the lot rather than try and find what I actually wanted. That pissed me off a bit so I just told him that even if I did buy the car it absolutely would not be through a dishonest dealer and walked without test driving or discussing price and thanked the salesman for his time showing me the car. The others were all pretty above board.
I know that most car dealers live by this statement but it is so much BS. If 90% of everyone left every car lot, no one would be driving any cars. What it really means is the salesman/dealer isn't willing to properly price the car and treat the customer right. Treat me right with a fair price and I'll buy from you. I'll also tell everyone I know to visit you. Treat me like a piece of meat and not only do you lose that sale, you lose all possibility of a future sale to me and I'll tell everyone I know that story as well.
It's not BS. It means they bought the car elsewhere after spending half the day with you. Even if you're the best, most friendly person in the world and they love you, often times when they go to keep looking around, they just get tired and buy wherever they are at the time.
It's not BS. It means they bought the car elsewhere after spending half the day with you. Even if you're the best, most friendly person in the world and they love you, often times when they go to keep looking around, they just get tired and buy wherever they are at the time.
100000000000000% true
You can give somebody the best service on the planet, most customers who don't buy on the spot - they just keep shopping and shopping and shopping and shopping. If they go to another dealer that has exactly the car they want, you'll be a forgotten memory. Hell, they go to another dealer with the same car and they just get tired and buy.
That's why they say, "if you don't spot em, you don't got em" (spot = on the spot delivery of a vehicle). I'm lucky if 15% of my unsold customers come back to buy.
You can give somebody the best service on the planet, most customers who don't buy on the spot - they just keep shopping and shopping and shopping and shopping. If they go to another dealer that has exactly the car they want, you'll be a forgotten memory. Hell, they go to another dealer with the same car and they just get tired and buy.
That's why they say, "if you don't spot em, you don't got em" (spot = on the spot delivery of a vehicle). I'm lucky if 15% of my unsold customers come back to buy.
Are you offended when a customer acts interested and ends up buying from another dealer?
Are you offended when a customer acts interested and ends up buying from another dealer?
no, it's just a big part of why so many car salesmen hate their job. It's a very very frustrating job/industry, especially for people who don't have the skill level I have to close at a huge percentage. To hear a million times "oh yea Bob you were absolutely fantastic, we're definitely buying a car from you this weekend" and then you call him the next day and hear "thanks for your great service Bob, we went to the dealer next door and bought it for 10 dollars less. You spent 5 hours with us, he spent 10 minutes and got our business'.
You guys complain about the industry, we complain probably even more about you the customers. There's something about this industry that just turns people into complete animals with zero regard for human decency
the worst part of it all is that the people who get the best deals are extremely ungrateful dickheads. You sell a car 1700 below invoice and the customer still acts like they're getting ripped off...soooooo frustrating. That's why I don't feel bad when I make 6G deal on somebody - that guy is usually very happy and very appreciative.
LOL. At one dealership I went to, the sales lady said she was only there for a couple months.
So you would recommend the Costco buying service? I am a AAA member and hears they had some kind of auto buying program but when I go and search for a used car, they have a website similar to cars.com but with higher prices. I'm about ready to go to CarMax lol.
I tried using AAA once, and the "special" pricing offered by the dealer was nothing special. Maybe Costco is better.
Are you offended when a customer acts interested and ends up buying from another dealer?
I was when I sold cars. It's pretty crappy to take up someone's time, someone you know works on commission and could have been helping other customers and earning money, only to buy elsewhere IF, and I stress the "if", you were pleased with that salesman and the dealership.
I love shopping for cars. I'm in the financial services industry and can be their worst nightmare. Sales experience + financial acumen.
I've done the math on those sheets and pointed out their scams.
I've hard sold against them while they were trying to hard sell me.
I also just leave if I feel uncomfortable. There are tons of honest, reasonable car salesmen/saleswomen that are more than willing to sell me a car.
I have a great relationship with a guy that's been selling at the same dealership for 20+ years. The good guys stay in the business because they build relationships and do what's right for the customer.
The scam artists get run out of town because they prefer a quick buck over a long lasting relationship.
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